Personal Naming Practices Research Articles

Fri rørsle for namn?

Combining autoethnographic methods with close observation of the use of personal names in identity documents, this article considers affective dimensions of personal names. Focusing especially on psychological aspects behind a decision made by the author at a young age to change his first name, the article suggests that Carl Rogers’ concept of conditions of worth offers insights into personal naming practices, while the notion of incongruence provides a useful framework for understanding some typical reasons for changing a name. The author proposes onomastic dysphoria as a term to encapsulate the extreme mismatch that an individual may experience between their own name and their self-concept. Analysing the bureaucratic implications of the name change and a subsequent naturalisation application, the article makes a case for free movement of names at an international level.

Personal names in medievallibri vitæas a sociolinguistic resource

AbstractThis paper explores the potential of using a historical sociolinguistic approach to interrogate the extensive lists of personal names found in medievallibri vitæ. So far, these lists have mainly been exploited in historical and a few onomastic studies, with a focus on name etymology and personal naming practices. Both the linguistics of the names and sociolinguistic perspectives remain to date underexamined. In this contribution, we explore possible sociolinguistic research questions, and present methodological challenges and preliminary results on the basis of four case studies from two examples, thelibri vitæof Thorney Abbey and Reichenau. The case studies examine autographs, choice of script and language, and dialect adaptation. Our main interest lies in the modelling and explanation of graphic and linguistic variation in the names. Our particular focus is on the status of the respective vernacular languages involved (Old English and Old High German) and in the conclusions we can draw from these documents about their underlying writing traditions in general, and scribal training and practices in particular.

Wealth is King: The Conceptualization of Wealth in Igbo Personal Naming Practices

Wealth is King: The Conceptualization of Wealth in Igbo Personal Naming Practices

Names and \u201cDoing Gender\u201d: How Forenames and Surnames Contribute to Gender Identities, Difference, and Inequalities

Names, as proper nouns, are clearly important for the identification of individuals in everyday life. In the present article, I argue that forenames and surnames need also to be recognized as “doing” words, important in the categorization of sex at birth and in the ongoing management of gender conduct appropriate to sex category. Using evidence on personal naming practices in the United States and United Kingdom, I examine what happens at crisis points of sexed and gendered naming in the life course (for example, at the birth of babies, at marriage, and during gender-identity transitions). I show how forenames and surnames help in the embodied doing of gender and, likewise, that bodies are key to gendered practices of forenaming and surnaming: we have “gendered embodied named identities.” Whether normative and compliant, pragmatic, or creative and resistant, forenaming and surnaming practices are revealed as core to the production and reproduction of binary sex categories and to gendered identities, difference, hierarchies, and inequalities.

Luvale Personal Names and Naming Practices: A Socio-Cultural Analysis

It is widely accepted that, in all societies, personal naming practices and culture are intertwined (Ngubane & Thabethe 2013). However, this reality is more pronounced in African society in that personal names are not just labels or appellations put on individuals to identify them in the community but rather words that reflect the world-view of people. This is also applicable to the Luvale people of Zambia. Indeed, among the Luvale, when a name is bestowed upon a child, the name-giver chooses a name that truly not only identifies the child as a person, but reflects the socio-cultural context or environment where the child is born. Using onomastics as its main theoretical base, this paper discusses the use of personal names and naming practices among the Luvale people of Northwestern Zambia. Data for analysis were mainly collected from native speakers in Zambezi District of Northwestern Zambia namely Kasoka Samusuwa, Kapindula Sayini, and Kutemba Samafu, to whom I am so grateful. I also used the available written literature on Luvale people as well as electronic sources.

Akcja i reakcja. Zmiany w imiennictwie Polaków w czasie drugiej wojny światowej

The present paper describes changes that occurred in personal naming practices of Poles during World War II as a result of the German language policy enforced in pre-war Polish territories that was incorporated into the Third Reich. Based on the analysis of the turnover rate of the most frequent first names it is demonstrated that significant changes took place in the areas of pre-war Poland that were joined to the three provinces of the Third Reich — Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, the Province of Upper Silesia, and Reichsgau Wartheland. The paper discusses the nature of changes that occurred in particular regions as well as the way they were reversed in 1945.

A Preliminary Study of the Practices of Personal Naming in Konso

This article presents the personal naming practices in Konso, a Cushitic-speaking people in southwest Ethiopia. Personal naming in Konso can be formal or informal. Formal personal names are given during a ceremony called sookata, while informal names are given either before or after the sookata ceremony. This article argues that the Konso have family names in their naming practice. This article analyses the typology of personal names in Konso and shows an intrinsic interplay between poetry, songs and personal names. The unitary state policies of the previous regimes and the proliferation of religions have resulted in trends in which people give Amharic or religious names to their children or replace indigenous Konso personal names either by Amharic or religious names. The new trends of changing indigenous names into Amharic and/or religious (mainly biblical) names compromise the knowledge and role of the Konso language as an expression of culture and an identity marker.

Shifts and continuities in Zulu personal naming practices

It is widely accepted that, in all societies, personal naming practices and culture are intertwined. Given that culture is not static, but dynamic and ever changing, personal names have undergone a major transformation due to socio-cultural and political factors. This article reflects on shifts and continuities in the practice of personal naming amongst the Zulu people. Emerging data demonstrate the evolution from pre-colonial Africa to the post-1994 period in South Africa. It is further illustrated that the reclaiming of indigenous names in the new democratic dispensation is perceived as a way for Africans to re-define and re-affirm their identities, thus de-stigmatising their culture. Ultimately, this article makes a strong argument that personal naming, in any society, is not detached from the socio-cultural environment. Rather, personal naming and culture are inextricably linked to socio-political conditions at any historical moment. This is demonstrated in the shift from personal naming practices greatly inspired by communal values to those steeped in contradictions within the epoch of neo-liberal capitalism. It is, therefore, concluded that shifts in people’s consciousness lead to fundamental shifts in personal naming practices.

Ethnicity and Population Structure in Personal Naming Networks

Personal naming practices exist in all human groups and are far from random. Rather, they continue to reflect social norms and ethno-cultural customs that have developed over generations. As a consequence, contemporary name frequency distributions retain distinct geographic, social and ethno-cultural patterning that can be exploited to understand population structure in human biology, public health and social science. Previous attempts to detect and delineate such structure in large populations have entailed extensive empirical analysis of naming conventions in different parts of the world without seeking any general or automated methods of population classification by ethno-cultural origin. Here we show how ‘naming networks’, constructed from forename-surname pairs of a large sample of the contemporary human population in 17 countries, provide a valuable representation of cultural, ethnic and linguistic population structure around the world. This innovative approach enriches and adds value to automated population classification through conventional national data sources such as telephone directories and electoral registers. The method identifies clear social and ethno-cultural clusters in such naming networks that extend far beyond the geographic areas in which particular names originated, and that are preserved even after international migration. Moreover, one of the most striking findings of this approach is that these clusters simply ‘emerge’ from the aggregation of millions of individual decisions on parental naming practices for their children, without any prior knowledge introduced by the researcher. Our probabilistic approach to community assignment, both at city level as well as at a global scale, helps to reveal the degree of isolation, integration or overlap between human populations in our rapidly globalising world. As such, this work has important implications for research in population genetics, public health, and social science adding new understandings of migration, identity, integration and social interaction across the world.

The Sociocultural Significance of Niitsitapi Personal Names: An Ethnographic Analysis

AbstractThis article presents a discussion of ethnographic research carried out by the author on the nature and functions of Niitsitapi "Blackfoot" personal names. The research indicates that these names are an integral and inseparable part of traditional Niitsitapi socioculture, and perform a number of important sociocultural functions. Most notably, Niitsitapi personal names seem to function as vehicles of oral knowledge transfer through which Niitsitapi cultural norms, beliefs, and values are conveyed. The traditional Niitsitapi approach to personal naming also appears to be strongly underpinned by certain Niitsitapi cultural concepts, which are reinforced within Niitsitapi communities through continued adherence to traditional personal naming practices. Niitsitapi personal names thus appear to play a crucial role in maintaining Niitsitapi culture and perceptions of cultural identity.

The Role of Gender in Some Viking-Age Innovations in Personal Naming

This article argues that some innovations in Viking-Age personal naming practices reflect differing attitudes towards the naming of male and female children. Gender imbalances in a number of innovative personal name deuterothemes which exist in both male and female versions (the latter developing from the former) suggest that deuterothemes indexing pre-Christian religious life were much more frequently applied to female children. This contrasts with the use of the so- called theophoric protothemes, which were more commonly used in naming males.

セネガルのレブーにおける命名法

セネガルのレブーにおける命名法

Names as pointers: Zulu personal naming practices

ABSTRACTChildren in many African societies have meaningful names – unlike their Western counterparts, whose names are primarily labels. In Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Tswana, and many other cultures, namegivers traditionally chose personal names that pointed to a range of people and circumstances that were relevant at the time of the child's birth. These highly individual or unique names were part of particular social frameworks that have long been evolving with Western acculturation. Like the social frameworks within which they are embedded, naming practices are in the process of change.This article investigates change in Zulu naming practices as a reflection of wider social changes. Taking historical accounts as the source of traditional namegiving, an analysis of rural, farm, and urban names shows quantitative and qualitative differences in naming practices. Contemporary names differ significantly from traditional ones, and provide evidence that the world view within which names are given is in the process of redefinition. (Anthropological linguistics, naming, South Africa, Zulu)

Naming and Identity: A Cross-Cultural Study of Personal Naming Practices.

Naming and Identity: A Cross-Cultural Study of Personal Naming Practices.

Review of Naming and Identity: A Cross-Cultural Study of Personal Naming Practices.

Review of Naming and Identity: A Cross-Cultural Study of Personal Naming Practices.

Naming and identity: a cross-cultural study of personal naming practices

Naming and identity: a cross-cultural study of personal naming practices

The Evolution of Personal Naming Practices among American Blacks

(1978). The Evolution of Personal Naming Practices among American Blacks. Names: Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 177-191.